New Shop (The New Mossback Workshop)

[BonPacific]

Just got the keys to my new playroom, AKA a 30x40 pole barn on our new property, which will be all mine.

Picture of the main RV bays.

And a third bay with overhead loft. It's separated from the main open space with a 2x10 half wall that runs about 2/3s of the length.

Looking back from the far corner

And the loft

The space is clean, has decent lighting, power (90amp service overall and 20amp outlets on every post and the ceiling trusses) and comes with rubber mats already installed and fans over the main space.

Before we bought the house it was used as a dog kennel and for agility training, and before that seemed to be a shop (labels in the box for planer and welder) and RV storage.

Minor downsides are no insulation, heating, or windows (beyond one) currently. But that gives me the opportunity to customize all of it to my liking. Planning on running at least one more outlet box to each post (two plugs on one circuit is somehow never enough). My father also has a stack of (salvaged) insulated windows so we'll work on getting some of those installed on the back wall (which looks out over lightly wooded pasture).

One of the first planned upgrades will be the lighting. The main bay is lit by functional, but not amazing flourescents. I'm planning on grabbing a bunch of these, if anyone has experience with them or feels like recommending an alternative. The bay under the loft already has LEDs, and I'm bringing some of my old Feit shop lights with me for the upstairs loft.

I'm bracing myself for sticker shock, but I want to get the whole thing spray-foamed eventually. After insulating several houses and my previous shop, I'd rather pay someone else to do it, and do it properly. After I get everything inside the walls arranged to my liking. I'm also planning on installing one of those new large DIY mini-splits as the primary climate control, supplemented by a couple electric heaters I've dragged around from previous shops as needed.

There's also a large storage shed that runs along the narrow side of the shop, which may be where my DC ends up living (and extra lumber storage). I don't think the little old Harbor Freight model is going to cut it for this shop (it barely kept up with the short runs to my tablesaw and lathe even with blowing straight outside). Though I can't afford to upgrade it immediately.

This place is a hell of an upgrade over the little barely-1-car suburban shop I've had for the last 5 years. We're planning to be in this new house a long time, and my dream shop is becoming reality.

[curlyoak]

 

If you have not read this long thread, you owe it to yourself to carefully read all of it, If you do your shop will be amazing.

[wtnhighlander]

Congratulations on the new place! That is going to be a great shop space, for sure.

[Mark J]

And once again we need a "jealous emoji" ! 

 

[Chestnut]

Congrats on the space. Do it right up front because after you get your tools in there it takes a lot of motivation to move tools around to improve your shop. DAMHIK.

[BonPacific]

@curlyoakyou best believe I was lurking through that entire thread. Before we found the new property we were actually planning a similar build at our current place, though slightly more space constrained.

@Chestnutn  unfortunately there's no practical way to not move my tools into the new space. We need to clear out and fix up our current place pretty quick, and the available storage options are expensive or inconvenient.

[legenddc]

Congrats on the new place. Seems like a lot of work planned but will be well worth it in the end.

The link to your lights wasn't working for me.

[Chestnut]

46 minutes ago, BonPacific said:

n unfortunately there's no practical way to not move my tools into the new space. We need to clear out and fix up our current place pretty quick, and the available storage options are expensive or inconvenient.

I will elaborate. Once you get the tools setup positioned and are using them to make stuff. If they are just in the shop and not setup that's not so bad.

I want to paint the floor and walls of my shop to cover up the concrete grey look but the thought of taking everything off the walls moving big tools undoing dust collection is just way too much work and doesn't seem worth it.

[BonPacific]

On 12/16/2021 at 8:59 AM, legenddc said:

Congrats on the new place. Seems like a lot of work planned but will be well worth it in the end.

The link to your lights wasn't working for me.

Hmm, maybe this will work better?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0MGBCC/

These had some good in-depth reviews, and the slightly higher than normal CRI got my attention. The price jumped recently, but they're usually around $36 each.

I'd love to go with something fancy like American Green Lights, but they're nust so expensive. That might be an upgrade for years down the line.

 

On 12/16/2021 at 9:15 AM, Chestnut said:

I will elaborate. Once you get the tools setup positioned and are using them to make stuff. If they are just in the shop and not setup that's not so bad.

I want to paint the floor and walls of my shop to cover up the concrete grey look but the thought of taking everything off the walls moving big tools undoing dust collection is just way too much work and doesn't seem worth it.

Ah, I see. Yeah, I'm definitely going to try and avoid getting anything permanently placed until I get the walls done. Everything but my bench already has some variety of wheel. I also need to lay down more rubber mats in the stall that doesn't currently have them.

[Chet]

Thats going to be a fun space to have and set up.  What was the mirror for on the lower portion of the wall in the first picture?

[BonPacific]

On 12/16/2021 at 10:11 AM, Chet said:

Thats going to be a fun space to have and set up.  What was the mirror for on the lower portion of the wall in the first picture?

I assume part of the dog agility/training course. Not something I've seen like that before. There's mirrors on two walls, and she left a third that looks like it might have been used as well.

[pkinneb]

Nice!! Congrats!

[gee-dub]

That looks like a great space.  Congrats!  I'll toss out that I had to do my interior during the COVID craziness.  Being an aggressive shopper for all of my materials saved me a lot of money.  Some identical things were cheaper at the BORG than from a supply house.  Other things were cheaper and of better quality at somewhere like a local electrical supply place. 

My point is that some time spent at the computer can save you some serious coin.  In my mind that just meant that I now had more to spend on something I may have "value engineered" in the plans or cut out entirely due to rising costs.

Now that I am 95% "in" the shop the things that I went the extra mile on or took the time to get just how I wanted them are really paying off.  Most of all . .. have fun.  We don't get to build out a space like that from scratch very often in our lives.

[Ronn W]

I am sooooo jealous already.   YOu are going to have a great time building your shop.

[BonPacific]

On 12/16/2021 at 1:22 PM, gee-dub said:

 

Good advice. I'm something of an obsessive shopper, constantly comparing different options and sources, sometimes to the point of paralysis. It does have it's benefits though. If nothing else, prices for basically everything are cheaper now that I'm no longer in the (rapidly urbanizing) suburbs of Seattle.

My close family has definite hoarding tendencies, so I'll also be doing a lot of "shopping" through accumulated material piles while trying to avoid accumulating my own pile...

Except for all my lumber. That's important, I swear.

[justaguy]

Good looking space to work with.  Congrats.  I am in the beginning of the middle of my own new 30 x 40 space.

[justaguy]

Good looking space to work with.  Congrats.  I am in the beginning of the middle of my own new 30 x 40 space.

Reading your initial post, I had a 30x30 shop in Gig Harbor.  No insulation, walls covered with sheetrock.  I had a Mitsubishi unit for AC and heat pump.  Had no trouble keeping the space at 72 during the "winter".

New shop has sprayed foam in the wall, so far so good.  

[BonPacific]

On 12/16/2021 at 9:22 PM, justaguy said:

Good looking space to work with.  Congrats.  I am in the beginning of the middle of my own new 30 x 40 space.

Reading your initial post, I had a 30x30 shop in Gig Harbor.  No insulation, walls covered with sheetrock.  I had a Mitsubishi unit for AC and heat pump.  Had no trouble keeping the space at 72 during the "winter".

New shop has sprayed foam in the wall, so far so good.  

Nice to hear! Yeah, in some ways the spray foam will be overkill. In my thinking I'd much rather over-insulate and put less pressure on the split unit than take a couple years off it's life or bump up my power bill.

I'm also going to be doing a decent amount of resin casting for my side business, which is much more temperature-dependant than woodworking when left overnight or during our rare cold-snaps.

 

Edit: I've also helped clean out and replace rodent-infested batting from other pole barns, and spray foam is supposed to be a little less attractive to them.

[Mark J]

How about flammability?  Is that an issue with foam?

[BonPacific]

On 12/17/2021 at 5:40 AM, Mark J said:

How about flammability?  Is that an issue with foam?

Polyurethane foams are flammable yeah.

[justaguy]

On 12/17/2021 at 1:47 AM, BonPacific said:

I'm also going to be doing a decent amount of resin casting for my side business, which is much more temperature-dependant than woodworking when left overnight or during our rare cold-snaps.

That is why I mentioned 72 degrees

[BonPacific]

Got it.

On the eternal topic of dust collection: Does anyone know if there's a good/convenient way to buy a new DC without the bags and filters and extra fittings? I already have a cyclone (though I'll eventually need to upsize from the current 5") and I'm planning to vent outside like I do currently, the loss of conditioned air isn't a big deal to me and I'd rather have the extra draw.

Related, since I'm looking to future-proof the ducting I run and have a good lead on 6" metal, how bad of an idea is it to run a 6" trunk to a 5" cyclone and DC?

[Gary Beasley]

You dont want to oversize to the point the air velocity drops and lets the dust settle in the pipes. All depends on the cfm rating and number of turns in your line whether it will get to that point.

[BonPacific]

CFM rating on my current DC is about 1500, but it's Harbor Freight so who knows how accurate it is, with or without bags. I'll probably upgrade to the largest thing I can afford in 220 down the line and perusing Grizzly's store (not worried about brand) that's somewhere between 2300 and 3500 CFM for the 'final' system.

The only tools currently setup for DC are my tablesaw and lathe, but I'm planning to eventually add a jointer, upgrade from my lunchbox planer, get DC somehow for my bandsaw, etc. Envisioning a trunk along the short wall for all the small/medium tools that can live with their back to the wall, and the lathe at the very end near the garage door (because there's no DC like the great outdoors). Then another large line from the DC out to the tablesaw in the middle of the main bays, ready to become a gee-dub-style tree depending on what machines end up living in the middle aisle. So depending how high I can mount my DC motor and cyclone there will only be 3-4 gentle turns to the existing machines.

[wtnhighlander]

If you want to buy just a blower, consider looking at a supply house that specializes in them. This page has a great description of the different impeller types and their typical use. The company may even source a blower for you at a reasonable cost, who knows.